KUALA LUMPUR – As more reports are surfacing on MySejahtera ownership, one Selangor assemblyman says it is time to ditch the national contact tracing app and allow others to also host digital vaccination certificates.
Bukit Gasing rep Rajiv Rishyakaran said the public are concerned that health-related data may fall into the wrong hands as well as the possibility of the government paying more than RM300 million for the app and related services.
“They are right to fear this, as the government is negotiating to pay MySJ (Sdn Bhd) for the app, albeit with the assurances from (Health Minister) Khairy Jamaluddin that the figure is much lower than RM300 million, something that doesn’t quite sit well with most Malaysians.
“The Health Ministry should allow other credible apps to host the vaccine certificates and not be held hostage by MySJ. There is no need for vaccine certificates to be hosted solely in the MySejahtera app,” he said in a statement today.
He suggested that the government should allow verified apps such as Grab and Touch ‘N Go to also host vaccine certificates and the option to use physical vaccination cards.
“The government also won’t be beholden to MySJ Sdn Bhd in negotiating price and terms for the application. The government also won’t have to cough up potentially hundreds of millions of ringgit to MySJ. Unless the negotiations with MySejahtera have other motives.”
He added that the existing check-in data must be deleted and at least one, if not two independent auditors to confirm this, and that no data breach has taken place.
The controversy over MySJ and the app came to a head when ownership is linked to a web of intricate corporate structure and non-Malaysian shareholders in those entities.
Khairy had said the deal to transfer the app’s intellectual property and software licence between its original developer Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd (formerly KPISoft) and MySJ is unrelated to the government’s latest negotiation.
Last Friday, he downplayed concerns about foreign interests in Entomo Malaysia, saying that the majority shareholders in the company are Malaysians.
He also revealed to the Dewan Negara that the government had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the developers of the MySejahtera contact tracing app on April 1, 2020, to secure ownership of all user data, and that one of the main terms in the agreement was for the government to gain full ownership of data and information obtained from MySejahtera users. – The Vibes, April 5, 2022
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